Scientists at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are developing a new plan to protect collision of asteroids and meteors with our Earth. The step is being taken after witnessing an exponential growth in the number of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) that are revolving around Earth and scientists believe that with the increasing number, the probability of collision also increases proportionally.

NASA started discovering the NEOs in 1998 and since then 13,500 NEOs have been discovered with 1500 new addition every year. With the special task force there is a solid budget that will be used for fighting the asteroids and other objects in space on their path towards Earth. There are pretty chances of a direct hit that has capability to effect widespread causing mass destruction due to their impact from with a greater frequency.

The program has been named as Planetary Defense Coordination Office as you can say PDCO for short. PDCO is instructed to identify the NEO’s assess the possible threat of the incoming object and if required to take the measures for prevention the object from colliding with the planet. Office plans to issue warnings for nearby encounters as well as the probable impact as the necessity occurs. With this, the office has to mandate to coordinate with other space agencies for the protection of our planet.

The mankind can’t stop any asteroid if the scientists had a decade or more in notice, but can only detect it. The last asteroid that entered Earth’s atmosphere was about three years ago in Russia

Science Directorate of NASA is running PDCO and will be provided a large annual budget of around $50 million a year, which experts have stated is not plenty for launching any ship to the space but adequate for financing the working on ground agency scientists.

If an asteroid is on its way to Earth and NASA don’t get the time to move or destroy it, then the scientists will help the Federal Emergency Management Agency for synchronizing the evacuations and deal with effects caused by it.